Impolite receptionists, discourteous reservationists and rude operators are fast disappearing because of increased attention paid to consumer services, and especially because of increased employer monitoring of consumer telecommunications services performed by employees. For example, the telecommunications performance by a receptionist may be monitored by a supervisor to insure the receptionist projects the proper image of the employer. Myriad employers, including the airline, auto rental, hotel/motel and restaurant industries, have realized that poor telephone performance can drive a customer directly into the hands (and to the telephones) of the competition.
Similarly, the performance of telemarketing personnel often is monitored to evaluate and improve sales performance with the hope of resultant sales increases. Thus, your next telephone conversation with a salesperson selling an insurance policy, a pest control service, or a set of steak knives may include a third (albeit silent) participant in the form of a sales supervisor monitoring the salesperson's techniques.
In addition, selective monitoring of telecommunications is carried out by law enforcement personnel. The aim of such monitoring is to gain information of a kind much different from an evaluation of telephone manners or sales performance. Yet, the technical difficulties in telecommunications monitoring encountered by law enforcement personnel are the same as the difficulties in monitoring faced by the sales and service industries.
In particular, a major disadvantage slowing the increased use of telecommunications monitoring systems is the limitation of prior art monitoring systems to localized area monitoring. Generally, prior art systems require the monitoring telephone line and the monitored telephone line to be close enough so that a mechanical connection or bridge between the lines can be set up. Based on this act of mechanically tapping into the monitored fine; the term "wiretapped" was coined. For most prior art systems, the bridge between the monitoring and monitored lines is set up at a local switch within the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or the private branch exchange (PBX) where both lines are present. The necessity of the mechanical connection between the monitoring and monitored lines limits the monitoring lines to those present in the local switch, and also limits the monitoring lines to those lines serving the local area.
Prior art localized monitoring has been sufficient for businesses having the monitoring and monitored lines routed through the same local switch. For example, the sales supervisor of a mail-order business having two or more telephone fines can monitor a sales line through the establishment of a bridge between the sales line and the supervisory line at the local switch or in the company's PBX. However, there is little flexibility in changing this monitoring set-up at the local switch. To monitor the other sales lines of the business, the sales supervisor must have a mechanical connection made between the monitoring line and each of the other lines to be monitored. Some telephone marketing systems have an integral PBX or can interact with the customer's PBX. In these telephone marketing systems the supervisor's workstation typically has a computer terminal so that the supervisor can specify which salesperson is to be monitored. With training, the supervisor then can instruct the system as to the salesperson to be monitored.
Prior art localized monitoring systems are insufficient in situations where the monitoring line and the monitored line are not both present at the local switch or otherwise in close proximity. Using the previous example, if the salesperson for the mail-order business works out of a sales office different from the office of the sales supervisor, the sales and supervisory lines may not be serviced by the same PBX or local switch. The sales supervisor is thus unable to monitor this outside sales line because a mechanical connection or bridge cannot be established between the sales and supervisory lines. As a result of this drawback, the sales supervisor does not have the flexibility to monitor more than the local sales force. Thus, a great disadvantage of prior art monitoring systems is that the monitoring of calls must take place at a location close to the monitored line. This may be impossible for businesses having a sales office in one part of the country and a supervisory office in another part. Further, monitoring calls in the close proximity of the monitored line may not be desirable or safe for law enforcement personnel.
In addition, the prior art requirement of a mechanical connection between each of the monitoring and monitored lines increases the labor and, hence, the time and cost of installing and maintaining such systems.
Moreover, the restrictions of prior art systems to localized area monitoring results in only partial monitoring services. For example, if the monitored party handles telephone calls on several different telephone fines, each of these fines must be monitored. Such monitoring can be accomplished with prior art systems only through the connection of each of the monitored lines to a monitoring fine. However, the monitored party can speak generally to only one person at a time, and the time and effort used to set up and monitor the unused fines is wasted.
In addition, prior art systems are unable to monitor effectively all of the communications received by a person having a personal number service. Generally, a personal number service provides a personal number to each subscriber of the service. Communications such as telephone calls are directed (dialed) using the personal number. The personal number service locates the subscriber based on a predetermined fist of locations. The communication is routed to the subscriber at the location determined by the service according to the list of locations. Thus, a subscriber may receive a call dialed to the subscriber's personal number at home, at the office, or at any other location designated by the subscriber.
Unless there is a mechanical connection between each of the monitored lines and a monitoring fine, prior art systems are unable to monitor communications dialed to a personal number. In order to make a connection with each monitored line, the operators of prior art systems must know which fines will be used by the monitored party. Without such advance information, prior art systems are unable to track and monitor a person having personal number service as that person moves from place to place. Thus, a monitored party may defeat prior art systems by simply designating an unmonitored location to receive communications. For example, prior art systems may be used to monitor communications directed to a person's home or office by establishing a mechanical connection between the monitored and monitoring lines. However, a person having a personal number service can designate some other unmonitored location such as a customer's office, a drugstore, or even the corner telephone booth as a location for receiving communications. Communications received at these locations cannot be monitored by prior art systems unless the system operators are aware that the person uses such locations for receiving communications. Once the prior art system operators become aware of the use of a particular location to receive calls, a monitoring connection can be made. However, the monitored person can change the reception location with little effort using the personal number service. Thus, a party is able to change the location for receiving personal number communications more quickly than the monitoring party can set up a wiretap for a particular location.
Accordingly, there is a need for a communications monitoring system which provides a centralized system for controlling the monitoring of communications. In particular, there is a need for a system which provides for a network-based solution to communications monitoring so as to provide monitoring of communications regardless of the physical locations of the monitoring and monitored lines. There is also a need for a monitoring system which does not require a mechanical connection between the monitored and monitoring lines. In addition, there is a need for a system which allows for effective monitoring of communications to a called party having a personal number service. Further, there is a need for a system which provides for communications monitoring that is relatively inexpensive, that does not require additional on-premises equipment, and that is easy to maintain and to service.